“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3
When thinking about our spiritual state before surrendering to Christ, we are often able to identify the immediate sins or idolatries that ‘directed’ our lives; we are intimately knowledgeable with the ‘lead characters.’ However, we are not always able to discern the ‘supporting cast of characters’, whom the ‘prince of the power of the air’ was using to energize our ‘passions’ and ‘desires.’ Perhaps we can find a few people or contexts, which are once removed, that played a part in making our sin so enticing. Even so, these destructive lines of connection are focused primarily upon our core self. But as the ‘the story line’ of our lives develop, we begin to discern that there are ‘stand in’ actors, who are playing key, but disguised, roles which paint the context of our lives in such a way as to make leaving our idolatries seemingly impossible. And as such, the scene being set, the ‘show must go on’; therefore, we play out our sinful and rebellious parts.
In the book Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis dramatically illustrates these subtle but powerful scenes in the first letter to Wormwood.
‘It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s clutches…Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true. The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy’s own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting, He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below…Your business is to fix his attention on the stream of immediate events. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real….” You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar/immediate is before their eyes.
It is this preoccupation with the ‘immediate’ or ‘sensual’ that blinds us to or blurs the surrounding cast under the direction of the evil one. Unfortunately, these distractions not only hinder the dangerous influence of the ‘cast’ of evil characters, but they also blind us to the presence, glory, and Lordship of Jesus the Christ as well. This ‘scene’ leaves the Lost of the world on the ‘wrong stage’, unable to see that there is an entirely different and glorious story occurring within God’s providential theatre.
Father of Heaven and Earth, you are the writer, producer, and director of the greatest story ever told. By your grace and mercy, write us and many others into your script for your glory and the joy of your cast!
When thinking about our spiritual state before surrendering to Christ, we are often able to identify the immediate sins or idolatries that ‘directed’ our lives; we are intimately knowledgeable with the ‘lead characters.’ However, we are not always able to discern the ‘supporting cast of characters’, whom the ‘prince of the power of the air’ was using to energize our ‘passions’ and ‘desires.’ Perhaps we can find a few people or contexts, which are once removed, that played a part in making our sin so enticing. Even so, these destructive lines of connection are focused primarily upon our core self. But as the ‘the story line’ of our lives develop, we begin to discern that there are ‘stand in’ actors, who are playing key, but disguised, roles which paint the context of our lives in such a way as to make leaving our idolatries seemingly impossible. And as such, the scene being set, the ‘show must go on’; therefore, we play out our sinful and rebellious parts.
In the book Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis dramatically illustrates these subtle but powerful scenes in the first letter to Wormwood.
‘It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy’s clutches…Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true. The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy’s own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting, He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below…Your business is to fix his attention on the stream of immediate events. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real….” You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar/immediate is before their eyes.
It is this preoccupation with the ‘immediate’ or ‘sensual’ that blinds us to or blurs the surrounding cast under the direction of the evil one. Unfortunately, these distractions not only hinder the dangerous influence of the ‘cast’ of evil characters, but they also blind us to the presence, glory, and Lordship of Jesus the Christ as well. This ‘scene’ leaves the Lost of the world on the ‘wrong stage’, unable to see that there is an entirely different and glorious story occurring within God’s providential theatre.
Father of Heaven and Earth, you are the writer, producer, and director of the greatest story ever told. By your grace and mercy, write us and many others into your script for your glory and the joy of your cast!